Sonic Heroes Forever
by Katana Mama
Summary: A time of peace has settled over Mobius since the defeat of Metal Sonic. However, 28 years after those events, an old threat has decided to make its presence felt once more...
1. Prologue

I take this time to apologize both for the briefness and content of this prologue. Despite trying to work with it for the past few days, this is all that I have been able to come up with. The story itself shall be much better. Thank you for taking the time to read it.

Sonic and Co. are copyrighted and registered trademarks of SEGA and Sonic Team. Sonic Heroes is licensed by Nintendo c.2003.

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**Sonic Heroes Forever**

**Prologue**

It is Mobian Calendar Year 2059. 28 years have passed since the events that led up to the big confrontation against Metallix, otherwise know as Metal Sonic, where all the Freedom Fighters of the past gathered and fought together, soundly defeating the threat with the appearance of Super Tails, Super Knuckles and Super Sonic. After putting Metal Sonic out of commission once again, they all went their separate ways.

Ever the wanderer, Sonic started his world journey anew with the more than a bit determined Amy Rose hot on his heels; Knuckles, the eternal guardian of the Master Emerald, returned to Angel Island while the infamous jewel thief Rouge the Bat followed carefully in his shadow, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike; Cream and Cheese returned with their recovered comrade Chocola to their home with Cream's mother Vanilla escorted by the seemingly simple Big and his wanderous friend Froggy, while Charmy, Espio and Vector of the Chaotix returned to their base of operations to wait for their next big job that would actually pay.

There were only two who didn't leave the remains of the demolished Final Fortress immediately.

One of the pair was E-123 Omega, an E-100 series robot that had been created by Dr. Eggman for the sole purpose of helping him conquer the world. However, due to the fact that he was frightened of the potential that Omega could reach, he was deactivated, which began Omega's hunt for Eggman and his eventual joining of Team Dark. Despite the fact that he now knew that he had only been chasing after a false Eggman for so long with his allies, he felt a sort of accomplishment. Although he hadn't managed to destroy the man that dealt a major blow to his "pride," he had managed to defeat someone that shadowed Eggman in pure cunning and ability. There had been none before that could possibly have done all that Metal Sonic had pulled off, so he looked down at the mangled shell of his body with more than a bit of respect for the fallen robot, despite that he had been trying to kill him for the past three days.

The other entity amidst the pile of scrap metal didn't look down on the metal clone with quite as much honor.

The ultimate life form, Shadow the Hedgehog, stared coldly down at Metal Sonic, eyes like ice. All he could think about was the fact that he had been used in attempt to control the world, which made his blood boil. Almost everything that had happened prior to three days ago had finally come back to him; meeting Professor Gerald's grandson, Space Colony ARK, Maria… All the events up to his falling from the colony had finally come back to his memory. It took all the self-control he had not to smash what was left of Metal Sonic's body into the tiniest bits imaginable.

Narrowing his eyes, he turned his back to the pitiful robot, finally making his way out of the decimated area, finally coming to the conclusion that he wasn't worth completely destroying.

Omega looked after Shadow, wondering whether or not the hedgehog would actually leave things merely as they were. After hearing Omega's gears whir to turn and look at him, a single hand wave from Shadow dismissed any thoughts Omega had of him coming back to destroy the shell.

Taking one last look at the metal corpse, Omega went off on his own, trailing after the energy signal left by the robots Eggman had used to escape after being rescued by the Chaotix. He didn't know what would happen to the inactive shell, but he knew that it most definitely would not be the last time they would encounter one another…

Now, all the brave fighters that fought so hard have settled down and had families, retired from the good fight to let the younger generation take over. But while the heroes have taken to the quiet life, old threats have decided to make themselves known...


	2. Beginnings

The very first chapter of what I hop is a successful story. Please enjoy it and leave comments on how I can improve, but please don't be rude about it. Thank you.

Sonic and Co. are property and licensed trademarks of SEGA and Sonic Team. Sonic Heroes is licensed by Nintendo c.2003. The names "Sonia" and "Manic" are property of DiC and Archie Comics, however their personalities, characteristics and designs are my own creation, as is Brass.

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**Sonic Heroes Forever**

**Chapter 1:**

**Beginnings**

"Sonia! What do you think you're doing?"

The light purple hedgehog broke reluctantly out of her cloud gazing to look down at her very irate instructor. It never failed. As soon as she got into a nice peaceful rest, he had to come along and spoil it. From the stories her father had told her, it seemed as if he hadn't changed much over the years.

She nimbly leapt down from her perch in a rather large oak tree and landed gracefully in front of her teacher, scratching the back of her head lightly and grinning.

"Sorry about that, Knuckles. I just saw some really interesting clouds and I just had to get a better look. You understand, right?"

The echidna looked less than amused at her reason for shirking off yet again. His amethyst eyes narrowed slightly as he stared at his aloof student, not intending to let her off the hook as easily as he had in the past few days.

"What I understand is that you're not taking your training seriously. That being the case, we're going to have a spar right now."

Sonia's sheepish look immediately changed to one of disbelief and disappointment. If there was anything she hated more than being forced to stop looking at the sky, it was being forced to spar. Admittedly, when she was in the mood for it, she could get into a fight and keep going for hours on end, but at the moment, she would have rather curled up in that tree branch rather than curl up her fist and start smashing some jaws in.

With a sigh, she trudged past her teacher and headed towards the training field, hands behind her head as she continued to look at the clouds above her.

"_Looks like we'll have to continue this later, my friends," _she thought.

A few minutes later, both she and Knuckles had made their way to the middle of the field that they used for sparring and training. Sonia smirked at her soon-to-be-opponent's face, which was almost as riddled with annoyance as her teacher's was earlier.

"_I would swear they were twins if I didn't know they were father and son."_

Upon hearing their footsteps approaching, he got up to meet them, putting a fist on his hip and using the thumb of his other hand to push the brim of his hat out of his eyes.

"Hey, Pops! Where'd you go? I've been waiting here forever!"

"Brass, I told you I had to go get your sparring partner. She managed to wander off again. Seems like she's getting good at that lately."

"Yeah, I noticed." Brass had started brushing the back of his jeans off with his hands, but paused to give Sonja a sidelong glance.

"What can I say?" Sonia said shrugging with a _laissez-faire _look on her face. "It's in my blood."

"Yeah, well, you're holding up the training pulling crap like that."

"Oh, get a grip. It's not like you can't get a fight out of Ninjai whenever you want."

Brass winced slightly at the mention of the chameleon's name.

"He's not as fun as you."

"You mean he's harder to beat than me?"

"Shut up!"

"That's enough, you two," Knuckles interjected, growing tired of his students' bantering. "Take up your stances."

Brass seemed to brighten at the fact that he would finally be able to start doing what he did best, while Sonia looked as if she couldn't possibly care less. Sliding his feet to make a more solid posture, Brass brought his fists up close this muzzle, the smell of new suede from his fingerless gloves reaching his nose and making him smile. Sonia merely continued standing as she had been, taking a second to glance at her nails and flick away a leaf that had managed to stick to her black tube top while she was in the tree. Both Knuckles and Brass sighed a bit in frustration, but shrugged it off to Sonia being her father's daughter. After a brief moment of tense silence (for Brass, anyway), a sudden gust of wind rustled the long-bladed grass.

"Begin!"

Brass barreled toward Sonia at full throttle, obviously not holding anything back. Sonia continued standing in the same space, until just the precise moment when Brass' punch would have landed on her jaw before leaping over and landing with all the grace of a dancer behind him. Immediately trying to correct himself, he spun around only to be greeted by a kick to the chin from Sonia that sent him in a perfect arc before he landed soundly on his back.

"You're too predictable, Brass. Bull charge, punch. It never fails. Try starting out a different way for once," Sonia said putting some distance between her and her opponent, lest he decide to take her off-guard and tackle her.

"Shut up! You worry about how you fight and I'll worry about how I do!"

Sonia sighed and shrugged, knowing that trying to tell Brass anything about fighting was like trying to talk to a brick wall.

"Whatever you say, Brass…"

Brass picked himself up off the ground, brushing himself off and pulling his hat a bit tighter down on his head. He smirked slightly and closed his eyes.

"_She acts all nonchalant about this, but it's obvious that she's gotten better," _he thought to himself. _"What the hell kind of training regiment has she been putting herself under?"_

Brass opened his eyes only to see that his opponent had capitalized on his moment of introspection, coming at him fast. All he could do was block to try and take the edge off the blow, but was surprised to find that it never came. Opening one eye slightly to see what was going on, he saw Sonia looking over to the side with a rather annoyed face at a blue hedgehog that didn't seem much older than either of them.

"What the hell kind of form is that," the boy said through fits of over exaggerated laughter. It took him a minute to regain a bit of his composure, grinning like an idiot at the both of them. "I don't know what's worse, the fact that Sonia's style's so bad or that you're getting your butt kicked by her, Brass!"

"Manic, what are you doing here?" Sonia asked, tapping her foot rapidly. "You know what Dad said about interrupting my training for one of your little heckling sessions."

"I'm here because the big man himself told me to come get you," Manic replied, coming closer to the two. "He said he needs to talk to you about something."

"_Great. What'd I do now?" _Sonia thought as she sighed audibly. "Did he seem fired up?'

"Not really," her brother replied, greeting Brass with a friendly punch. "I don't know what he could want."

Knuckles had also walked over to them, bearing an even more annoyed look than he sported when he'd found Sonia. Grabbing Manic roughly by his right ear, he tugged at it lightly, causing Manic to start flailing.

"You're killin' me, Knux! Knock it off will ya!"

"You should address your elders so casually, you know." Knuckles replied, squeezing a little harder, making tears come to the young hedgehog's eyes and his flailing more frantic.

"Alright, alright! I'm sorry! Just let me go!" Manic whined. Knuckles "humph"ed quietly and obliged, looking down at the boy with disappointment. Manic immediately sat down and started nursing his ear, muttering curses in his mind. Sonia sighed audibly as she turned to Brass, an equally annoyed and exasperated look on his face.

"Looks like we're going to have to put this little match on pause, Brass."

"Yeah, looks that way. If you're going back home, I want to come with. There're some things I need to get and talk to your mom about. That's okay, right, Pops?"

Knuckles turned to his son with a bit of curiosity on his face.

"What exactly do you need to talk with Amy about?"

"Um…Stuff?" Brass replied with an innocent grin. Knuckles suspicions only rose further with the reply, but knowing that his son would find any manner of excuse to try and get out of spilling what exactly it was, he decided against grilling the boy.

"Alright. Just be back before dinner. Your mother will kill us both if you're late again."

"Sure thing, Pops."

Manic nudged his sister, snickering behind his hand.

"Who knew one bat could keep two of the strongest people on the planet in line, eh?"

Sonia smiled a bit also, but only because Manic didn't know what Rouge could do when she went on one of her tirades about Brass coming home late. Though you wouldn't be able to tell from stories about her past, she can be quite overbearing at times, as Sonia got to witness one time she had spent the night over their house since training had went so late into the night. It was the first time she'd seen Knuckles laid out by a single kick.

"Well, now that that's settled, let's get going to see what Dad wants," Sonia said to the others.

"I expect to see you here bright and early tomorrow unless something trauma-inducing happens." Knuckles stern look told Sonic that he was serious.

"Alright."

"Good. You're dismissed, then." Knuckles walked off back towards his own home, offering a wave to the both of them as he walked.

"Cool," Manic said, starting to trot away from the group. "I'll see you guys there. I'm going ahead to tell Dad you're on your way." With that, he zoomed away at light speed, kicking up all manner of natural debris along the way. Sonia sighed as she saw him off, shaking her head slightly.

"Always the showoff. He just loves rubbing the fact that he's got speed like Dad's in my face."

"I wouldn't be too concerned about it, Sonia," Brass said tapping her lightly on the arm. "You're damn strong, plus you know your way around weapons. I don't even know why you've been practicing hand-to-hand for so long."

"Mom suggested it. She found some ways to make that old hammer of hers more powerful a while ago, so she suggested strength training with your dad to make sure I can use it when she gives it to me."

"Oh, so she's giving you that old thing?"

"Yeah. It may look like a piece of slag, but the Piku Piku Hammer is actually a pretty strong weapon. With a little work and a new paint job, it'll be great."

"I suppose. Well, let's get going, then. We can take my hover car, if you want."

"Why not. I'm a bit wiped after knocking you around all day."

"Watch it."

"Sorry, sorry. But you really should take my advice and start working on your battle strategies."

"Whatever," Brass replied as he started walking off towards the direction of his car. Mumblings were the only thing Sonia heard afterward, so she took that as her cue to follow. As she walked, she spotted a bird in a nearby tree that caught her interest.

"Never seen that type before. Wonder what species that one is."

The small, ebony bird only peered down at the girl, never moving even a feather. After a minute, it started to make Sonia uneasy.

"Hey, are you coming or what!" Brass called from the car, which he had pulled up closer to where Sonia was.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming. Just looking at this creepy bird…"

"Forget the wildlife for the moment and let's get moving. Your dad's waiting on you, remember? He doesn't have the longest run of patience in the world."

Knowing Brass was right, she started walking away from the tree towards, the car, but couldn't help to glance backward to look at the bird one last time. It still sat in the same place, unmoving and staring at her. With a shudder, she hopped in the car.

"Let's go."

Brass laid on the gas and took off through the forest, blaring fast-tempo rock music along the way. All the while, the bird that had been so carefully watching Sonia followed after the car with its eyes, the small camera that made up a large portion of it zooming in on Sonia once again.

Meanwhile, miles upon miles away in Rail Canyon, a shadowed figure merely smiled…


End file.
